The Houzz Renovation Barometer for fourth quarter 2018 shows that wait times to work with a building firm have dropped

New data just out on the residential remodeling industry paints a rosy picture for firms in the industry. Firms expect business activity to rise during the final three months of 2018, the data shows. And homeowners may get some relief from long wait times to start their projects, as the average wait time for construction sector firms dropped to 4½ weeks from 6½ weeks during the previous three months.

“Home renovation professionals are clearly very upbeat about the year end, despite a number of challenges facing the industry today,” says Nino Sitchinava, principal economist at Houzz.

The data come from the Q4 2018 Houzz Renovation Barometer, which tracks residential renovation market expectations, project wait times and recent business activity. (Market expectations and business activity have been smoothed out to account for predictable seasonal fluctuations, while project wait times have not.) The Barometer is based on a quarterly survey of residential remodeling businesses with a profile on Houzzand garnered 1,750 responses. Read on to gain insights from what they said.

The multifamily sector has seen a frenzy of apartment construction over the last decade, but it’s single-family homes that were the fastest growing type of rental between 2007 and 2016, according to a new study by RentCafe. Over the last decade, single-family rentals rose by 31 percent, while the multifamily sector grew by 14 percent. In net gain, the growth makes up 3.6 million units versus 3.2 million units added, respectively.